In 1967, two friends from Newark looked at a nation full of flags and noticed the one that was missing. This is the story of Melvin Charles and Gleason T. Jackson — and the symbol they gave Black America.
Every symbol begins with a person who refused to accept an absence. For the Black American Heritage Flag, it began with two: Melvin Charles and Gleason T. Jackson, friends from Newark, New Jersey, who in 1967 asked a question that history had left unanswered for three and a half centuries — and then answered it themselves.
Newark, 1967
To understand the flag, you have to understand the moment. In 1967, the Civil Rights Movement had won landmark legal victories, yet daily life for Black Americans remained marked by exclusion. Newark itself was months away from becoming a national symbol of that tension. Identity, representation, and dignity were not abstractions in that city — they were urgent questions.
Amid all of it, Charles and Jackson noticed something deceptively simple: every heritage seemed to have a banner. Nations had flags. Ethnic communities marched behind flags. But the descendants of enslaved Africans in America — a people with a distinct history found nowhere else on Earth — had no flag that told their story.
Two friends, one conviction
Accounts describe the two men as high-spirited, determined, and complementary — one part vision, one part discipline. What set them apart was not artistic training or political office. It was conviction: the belief that a people without a symbol of their past would struggle to teach that past to their children.
So they did what scholars and statesmen had not. They researched the symbolic language of flags — colors, emblems, heraldry — and asked what would truthfully represent the Black American journey: the sacrifice, the pride, the intellect, the endurance, and the hope.
Designing a philosophy in cloth
The result was not decoration but argument. Red for the blood shed across centuries. Black for pride in identity. Gold for intellect, prosperity, and peace. At the center, a gold sword — deliberately blunted, because strength worthy of respect is strength under control — encircled by a wreath of fig leaves, the ancient emblem of endurance, abundance, and triumph.
Every element is explained in our full guide to the flag's meaning, colors, and symbols. What matters here is the intent: Charles and Jackson designed a flag that could be taught, element by element, like a lesson plan in silk.
Taking the flag on the road
A flag no one understands is just fabric. The creators knew it — so after the flag's first official display at a Newark community ceremony in 1967, they took it on the road. Schools. Churches. Civic assemblies. City after city, they presented the flag as an educational visual aid: a way to teach ancestral contribution, citizenship, and historical appreciation to audiences that textbooks had failed.
That choice — educators first, spectacle never — is why the flag endured. It rooted itself in classrooms and congregations, the two institutions that pass memory between generations. Our history page traces this journey in more detail.
The legacy they left
More than five decades later, the Black American Heritage Flag flies at Black History Month programs, Juneteenth celebrations, HBCU campuses, and family reunions. Most of the people beneath it will never know the two names responsible. This website exists, in part, to fix that.
Melvin Charles and Gleason T. Jackson gave Black America what every heritage deserves: a symbol that says we were here, we endured, and we are proud. Preserving their names alongside their flag is the least history owes them.
Carry it forward
The best way to honor the creators is to do what they did: teach. Share our heritage journal, explore the symbols, and if you're an educator, join the waitlist for our classroom resources — built in exactly the spirit Charles and Jackson began.
Frequently asked questions
Who were Melvin Charles and Gleason T. Jackson?
They were two friends from Newark, New Jersey who created the Black American Heritage Flag in 1967 to give Black Americans a heritage symbol of their own, then toured schools, churches, and civic assemblies teaching its meaning.
Why did they create the flag in 1967?
At the height of the Civil Rights era, they realized that while nations and ethnic communities had flags, no flag represented the distinct history and identity of Black Americans — so they designed one.
Where was the Black American Heritage Flag first displayed?
The flag was first officially displayed at a community ceremony in Newark, New Jersey, in 1967, before the creators began touring it nationally as an educational symbol.
What was the creators' goal for the flag?
Their mission was educational: to foster cultural belonging, pride, and historical appreciation among Black American families, students, and educators — using the flag as a teaching tool, not merely a banner.